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PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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That sounded like one hell of an adventure. :) That Speed Ventures Red group must have been pretty fun to run with. I probably would have been a little timid with all the super high dollar machines out there, but man that would have been cool.
I've seen them run once or twice before at places like the Coronado Festival of Speed, and occasionally one will stop by to break in a motor or whatnot, but for whatever reason I wasn't on track with them (the one in the Kodak 4 car runs in Green), but there's something about a screaming v8 at nearly 9k rpm, and ... man, it's something else to have Jeff Gordon's car go right by your door at 8800. I'm usually pretty calm when I'm on the track, but the 14 year old in me was gushing and jumping up and down, while the 41 year old me threatened to turn the car around right now.

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Ludachris

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I've seen them run once or twice before at places like the Coronado Festival of Speed, and occasionally one will stop by to break in a motor or whatnot, but for whatever reason I wasn't on track with them (the one in the Kodak 4 car runs in Green), but there's something about a screaming v8 at nearly 9k rpm, and ... man, it's something else to have Jeff Gordon's car go right by your door at 8800. I'm usually pretty calm when I'm on the track, but the 14 year old in me was gushing and jumping up and down, while the 41 year old me threatened to turn the car around right now.

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I can understand that. Not something you normally see - takes you mind a little time to process what you're seeing.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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Nice shift knob! I walked around Saturday, but didn't see your car. I lost 4th gear early on Sunday so I left pretty early.

Haha, every ounce counts 😀 I think I came within 8 pounds at one point, and then ate like a slob that night to add some more anti-DQ buffer room.

I was sharing my garage with Ale in 29/30 across from registration and semi hidden by the red Torco Viper and Grey Camaro 1LE.

Where were you camped? The infield? I was there on Friday afternoon but had to tend to some last minute repairs to pass tech, and up all night. By the time I had finished it, yeah, saw you missing on the race hero.

Hopefully that 4th gear doesn't keep you out of the action for too long.
 
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Haha, every ounce counts 😀 I think I came within 8 pounds at one point, and then ate like a slob that night to add some more anti-DQ buffer room.

I was sharing my garage with Ale in 29/30 across from registration and semi hidden by the red Torco Viper and Grey Camaro 1LE.

Where were you camped? The infield? I was there on Friday afternoon but had to tend to some last minute repairs to pass tech, and up all night. By the time I had finished it, yeah, saw you missing on the race hero.

Hopefully that 4th gear doesn't keep you out of the action for too long.
Ryan and I were pretty far down in the infield area. Only 2 AI cars this weekend, the 3rd guy lost the #8 ring land in his Coyote motor testing, seems to be a common problem with them. I think that is now 5 times that has happened on different cars in a year. Parts are on the way for the trans, should have it back up and running for BW in a few weeks. I wanted to put the G-Force close ratio gear set in it at the same time but they are short on parts so that will have to wait a month or 2. AAA and BW really exacerbates the crap 1st/2nd gear in the 3650.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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PaddyPrix

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity... why do I even bother driving all the way up to Buttonwillow.

There are just some days where I feel as if the car is blackmailing me.


Hectic week, had Friday planned off, but the ineptitude of others meant that I was up all night to 6am fixing some stupid mess. Took a nap and instead of leaving at like 10am, I left at like 1 after getting some rest, the trailer, and loading it up. Hit a metric poop ton of Friday traffic through Los Angeles, and in such a rushed state forgot to grab e85, so instead of grabbing it on the way, had to take a 45m detour to Bakersfield and cut through, finally getting to the track at like 8pm, and most importantly missed Friday tech.

Saturday morning I was 2nd in like for the tech inspection, and they (rightfully) failed me because I didn't have safety wire or a cotter pin in my harness clip. Left the line, ran around and begged for safety wire which I thankfully found not too far away, but by the time I got it in, got into line, I was right at when we're supposed to go to the required 8am Driver Meeting. Got out of line, parked, ran across the track, got the bracelet and passes... then forgot to register and grab a transponder, ran back to registration, grabbed the transponder, tossed it onto the car, went back to tech, helped somebody else safety wire their pins, because they too would have failed, and finally got my sticker at about 8:50, 10 minutes before our session. Got in line, and since it was first come, first serve, I was dead last in line as we were released out.

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... of friggin' 35 cars.

To those who have seen or done Buttonwillow before, doing so with 35 cars on the course is a stretch, and doing so with 35 cars that are from 7 different classes from essentially 4:1 P/W to 16:1 is madness, especially in the good ol' 13 CW configuration, which really only presents a passing area on the main straightaway, or getting others in and out of a few corners if you're considerably over-powered.

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Kevin was in TT2 with me as well, but he was much smarter and went out first, but I was busy with all that mayhem traffic jam which really started on Thursday night by some dumb developer. Oh well, going to be an uphill battle all weekend long I guess. This wasn't helped out in any way by our Time Trial rule which is no passing on the first green lap unless pointed by. I get why they do it with the various levels of compounds, so for somebody running A7, I'm essentially ready on the warmup lap and just wasting away precious softness at 3/4 pace sitting behind some 120hp TT6 944. 17th, 11th, then 6th when I got to run with some faster cars and not coast for large sections. Running 18x11 square, I try to switch tires either at the end of the day if I'm doing 3 sessions, or at lunch if I'm doing 4.

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Is that a lot of wheel weights? That's a lot of wheel weights.
Didn't so much notice it on Saturday as I was in traffic and that tire was on the rear left, but on the front right, I was chattering teeth the whole time down the single straight. Thankfully Buttonwillow isn't really a high speed place, but I didn't feel safe pushing it over 120, still had to get my passes in though.

Finished the day with a 1:57.1, which yeah, is a PB, but dead honest, with a splitter and less people, I am super confident in me and this having a 1:54, especially when I compare my corner speeds with the plentiful Buttonwillow videos, I'm as fast or faster in all those spots that 1:54-1:55 cars are. Ending on a positive note, it was still good for 2nd, but I'll get them next time.

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Was going to toss the splitter on, and accidentally broke it, so ran into town and grabbed another board to start the fun over again. Since Reber loves the orange mallot, tossed it back in the shot.

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Not feeling too confident about the setup, I figured I'd give it one shot on Sunday, play it safe-ish, get a few laps in, and shut it down.

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Pulled 135 on the back stretch dogleg CW14+A section and just couldn't take it any more. I know I'm good for 145-150 back there which would have been crazy competitive, TT2 course record perhaps, but just did two laps coasting behind of the guys infront of me, and called it a day after just those two laps, spending the rest of the day cheering on my sworn enemy as they took a few swipes at the TT2 record, just missing it by 2 tenths, which through a strange turn of luck, they lost because some significantly slower car killed their lap on the last turn. Bud, welcome to my weekend.

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So, I guess that was easily the most disappointing 2nd place finish I've ever had, not that I'm not going to not take it :D Now with 10 sessions on the A7, they're certainly on the decline, but I might give them 4 sessions at the Super GT Cup... ironically also going to be at Buttonwillow on May 9th, and hope for some redemption, going to go f***ing ham on the outlap. I'm pretty certain my vibration issue is from the rim, and with me swapping in the X pattern, it being on the front right makes sense, as while I love me some berms, we're generally hitting them at low speeds, except Auto Club's high speed 7/8 chicane which with my 3600# porker hitting it at 125mph isn't going to survive for too long. Talked to Cory at APEX and got some new stuff coming, but with that tag team of covid and shipping delays, it's going to be a while, so will have to try my luck with somebody local who's capable of repairing it a little better, but it'll always be sitting in the back of my mind when I'm mashing that throttle in. Next up after the Super GT Cup at Buttonwillow will be Willow Springs, where I'll be going for my competition license, pretty psyched about that, and perhaps a little more redemption at Willow Springs, where I threw away a 3rd place in T1 because of my brakes and having to make a quick decision.

3rd at ACS, 2nd for Saturday, and @flyhalf, I've got your ACS 2nd on me as well. I looked like an 80s rapper walking around with all 3 of them around my neck.

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So entering May, that pretty much concludes our PB season here with our So Cal tracks getting into the 90s by the morning... not that my HF laser temp gun is brutally accurate, but track temp was 145 by the hot pit, got to be even hotter in the turns.
 
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Put a dial gauge on the bad rim and see how much runout you have. Banging curbs you feel about 40 thou runout and a sensitive guy can feel 20 thou.. I have bent rims back with a cheap harbor freight hydralic ram. When you see about 2oz or weight that's about 40 thou out of round. Also the tire will spin on the wheel braking or acelerating. The only way to stop that is mounting with cheap hair spray. I do that since I mount my own tires. Mark the tire at the valve stem and look for movement after a sessions. Typical 2-3 inch is typical movement and can throw even more imbalance into a bent wheel. So now after running your 40 thou out and moved tire is like 60-80 thou out and shakeyour filling out of your teeth. With the rma I can bend a wheel back to about 20 thou out so I can't feel it.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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Put a dial gauge on the bad rim and see how much runout you have. Banging curbs you feel about 40 thou runout and a sensitive guy can feel 20 thou.. I have bent rims back with a cheap harbor freight hydralic ram. When you see about 2oz or weight that's about 40 thou out of round. Also the tire will spin on the wheel braking or acelerating. The only way to stop that is mounting with cheap hair spray. I do that since I mount my own tires. Mark the tire at the valve stem and look for movement after a sessions. Typical 2-3 inch is typical movement and can throw even more imbalance into a bent wheel. So now after running your 40 thou out and moved tire is like 60-80 thou out and shakeyour filling out of your teeth. With the rma I can bend a wheel back to about 20 thou out so I can't feel it.
20 1/4oz weights is 5oz, so that's what, a tenth out of round?
LLC'd up my racing stuffs, so actually identified as tire balancing/mounting as something I could do from the home, but would have to move first because that'd give the HOA all they need to boot me since all they do is complain. I figure if I can get a machine for a few thousand, and market price on mount/balance is $25/tire, at $100 of labor, 20 sets pays for it, and whatever else I can get for some after hours craigslist/facebook randoms. I'll look into the HF bit though, if it's the one I'm thinking of, I thought it's limited to certain sizes which might put me outside that range.
 

Fabman

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I cut my teeth on a 1/4 mile oval with 35 full size cars starting every feature.
You get good in traffic fast....its a blessing, and a curse....but ultimately a blessing.
Congrats one your accomplishments!
 

PaddyPrix

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I cut my teeth on a 1/4 mile oval with 35 full size cars starting every feature.
You get good in traffic fast....its a blessing, and a curse....but ultimately a blessing.
True, but you were also relatively of equal cars, and trying to get those passes was probably more fun and rewarding than frustrating. I'm still feeling the gang out, but there are a few careless people in the other classes that I need to pay careful attention to. Agreed on the traffic stuff, it's almost a free version of lead/follow, and there's a TT1 car with the same power that I'm pretty evenly matched up with that makes it fun, despite him being 1000# lighter. I also forgot to charge up my Race Capture tablet, so don't have any valuable data to look at and improve upon, which sucks. Since Buttonwillow has like 40 configurations, other apps act like a transponder using just the start/finish which is of no help.
 

Fabman

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True, but you were also relatively of equal cars, and trying to get those passes was probably more fun and rewarding than frustrating. I'm still feeling the gang out, but there are a few careless people in the other classes that I need to pay careful attention to. Agreed on the traffic stuff, it's almost a free version of lead/follow, and there's a TT1 car with the same power that I'm pretty evenly matched up with that makes it fun, despite him being 1000# lighter. I also forgot to charge up my Race Capture tablet, so don't have any valuable data to look at and improve upon, which sucks. Since Buttonwillow has like 40 configurations, other apps act like a transponder using just the start/finish which is of no help.
Oval track fast car starts in the back.
I'll never understand why road racing they put the fast guy on the pole...OF COURSE he's going to win....something exceptional has to happen for a different outcome. Just seems crazy to me but whatever.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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Oval track fast car starts in the back.
I'll never understand why road racing they put the fast guy on the pole...OF COURSE he's going to win....something exceptional has to happen for a different outcome. Just seems crazy to me but whatever.
Gotta really earn that W right? But yeah, you're right and perhaps I'm just being salty, 13ish hours of driving in a partially sleep deprived state for at best an hour of time at a track that I'm pretty much driving in one gear. Here's hoping their next track gets finished, and is slightly more exciting.
 

Fabman

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Gotta really earn that W right? But yeah, you're right and perhaps I'm just being salty, 13ish hours of driving in a partially sleep deprived state for at best an hour of time at a track that I'm pretty much driving in one gear. Here's hoping their next track gets finished, and is slightly more exciting.
You can always come up here and play with us delinquents.
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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us delinquents.
I'm taking that as an unintentional compliment.
I'm also taking like, a week off and going to totally f*** up the grass up at Thunderhill on Oct 23-24 (Super GT Cup)
If they have a sound requirement, well, I'm just going to drive my tank until empty and enjoy my well earned lifetime ban.
 

Fabman

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I'm taking that as an unintentional compliment.
I'm also taking like, a week off and going to totally f*** up the grass up at Thunderhill on Oct 23-24 (Super GT Cup)
If they have a sound requirement, well, I'm just going to drive my tank until empty and enjoy my well earned lifetime ban.
103 DB. Enjoy!
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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Live by the Purple Crack, Die by the Purple Crack.

So, joining in the post-fest that came with many of us in SoCal running in the Super GT Cup, figured I'd put my bit in before I forget it. Growing up in competitive sports, your character is put to test on days where you don't have your best stuff. I mean, kinda sucks when you're tasked with trying to shut down the NHL Rookie of the Year, but nothing you can do other than go back and get them next time out. In this case, critical mistake was on my lack of attention put to the tires, our beloved and almighty A7. Brought it out for 3 heat cycles at ACS on Saturday, 3 on Sunday, 3 at BW Saturday, 1 at BW Sunday had me at 10 entering the Super GT Cup event, and it was nothing but a disaster.

Did my usual routine, took them out for their first session in the morning, and on the warmup lap thought it was just them being cold, but found them lacking. First flying lap, took it easy down the straight because I was behind cars that I know I could have blown past, but they were with me because of the pre-grid, perhaps I could figure out where they'd be differing from me.

I took it "easy" on the bus stop, and was planning on nibbling more there as the session progressed.


So, yeah, that happened and caught me completely off guard, so much that I didn't even bother fighting it. With the ol' LSD rear, I'm used to understeering which would put me on the far side under throttle, and by going in easy, I'd worry about that next lap... the one that doesn't happen. I laugh because of the absurdity of it all, not that me going off is absurd, but ... yeah. Not a good start. Go back in, now that my time is DQ'd, and go for another couple of laps to get some dirt out, pulled out something like a mid-1:58 babying things in the turns, because any throttle and harder elevated movement snaps out the end. Perplexed, I get under the car after the session, check out for any damage, and give everything a visual inspection and shake, which shows no problems, and all of my bolts and nuts are lined up, so nothing rattled off/loose.

Then the 2nd session was a fun one, with the world's slowest warmup lap.



Not much after that, I again had heavy oversteer coming out of the esses, someplace I've again, never had an issue with before, I'm rolling into full throttle, grabbing the kerb on that last fast left, and the rear snaps and I'm now staring at the low wall, the part of the track which has led to serious injuries to both driver and cars. Corrected it, straightened it, and I'm guessing the tank slap was enough to throw me off to the right and into the dirt for the 2nd off of the day, yet another session not counting.

3rd session, I figured I'd just do a 4/10ths at a pace slightly faster than the previous warmup lap so that I could at least have a time that counted, no matter how shitty. Think I pulled a pedestrian 2:01 or something, hey, at least it counted. 4th session realizing this is the last I'll see these A7's, now on their 14th heat cycle and showing belts on every tire, figured it'd be worth it to pump the air up and try to sub 2 which would put me mid-pack. So, pumped up to 37 hot-ish, dialed the wing up as high as it went for understeer city, and pretty much mashed it in the straights, and coasted to the turns. Spinning sideways in every turn above 50mph, spinning down the straights, but pulled out like a 1:59.x which was enough to get 4th in Supermod and 3rd in the Shootout Race category since my tires are below 100tw. The Shootout Race winner had a mid 1:57, stuff I was easily doing the weekend before, where I was coasting in traffic instead, so the decline and drop-off of an A7 above 7 cycles is just astounding.

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Really wish the set of 18x11's would get here, because on only one set, I'm not going to go to a tire shop and pay $100 to mount/remount two sets of tires between runs... am I? Who knows. Fresh A7's coming in for NASA @ Willow Springs in two weekends, hopefully I can just go back to being the shitty driver I am with a predictably shitty car.

Wish I could have done better, but oh well, short memory and move on. While the post sounds negative, it was like always, a fun day at the track with the guys, almost getting to the point that it's too many to list with the TMO fam. Saw all the ol' homies, got to have REAL ITALIAN FOOD WITH A REAL ITALIAN (and Tom), and put some faces to names that have been internet chat buddies for a bit too. Definitely some fast times out there too, especially considering some of the limitations that are placed and require a lil' gaming of the system. Unfortunately with my 8 point cage, uh, nothing I can really do to sneak into mod or street class without cutting it out.

I guess the highlight to the weekend was that when I was loaded up, and making my long sweep of bye's, I drove by Don's trailer to say bye, but didn't see his beautiful Camaro. Kept driving, looked left, at the track to hear and see his beautiful Camaro... and not a second later, making some sweet, sweet love to the Buttonwillow dirt. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you didn't do it on purpose because you saw a big cop truck towing some asshole's Mustang, but if you did, dinner's on me... because all those options of AMC that I got at a $5 strike price are looking pretty damn good today.
 

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